SO ---- TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL !

SO - - - Tell Me How You Really Feel !

Miss Mayne Promotes Overdrive through a Drawing

It's difficult to get feedback from both parents and students about what goes on in the Media Center. So, I'm going to make it easy for you. 

Just answer the following questions and send them back to my email ASAP. It doesn't matter what time of the year it is, my door is always opened. 

1. What is your favorite part about coming to the Media Center?

2. How can I better support your reading?

email to : dmayne@alpinedistrict.org 

THANKS!

Star Wars Final Winners

So Who Won?

COULD YOU SURVIVE IN LEGO LAND OR WOULD YOU
 PULL YOUR HAIR OUT?

The Star Wars Lego contest was very competitive this year with 15 teams vying for the prize of two opening night movie tickets to Star Wars and concessions money. (Because of privacy laws, we cannot put the full names of the students who won, but we can put their team name on our blog. )

TEAM BELUGA WHALE WON!

The Beluga Whale assembled 490 pieces of a ship in 38 minutes and 29 sec.

 CONGRATS guys!  Not only were we impressed with their time, but also the determination of the two final teams and how they stayed after an hour last day before Christmas Break to duke things out.

LESSONS LEARNED

What we found out are teams who practiced together before the competition, even if it wasn't the same Lego model,  usually did better. Roles were split, a rhythm was established, and fingers and brains were limbered up. There was nothing in the rules that said competitors couldn't practice.  We were happily surprised to learn how many girls were obsessed with Legos, which traditionally have been a guy thing. Look at the newer Lego advertisements and you'll they have more photos of young girls  at a tender age holding completed Legos projects. This is a good thing. . . the world needs lady engineers too!

We have ordered a KLUTZ Lego Chain Reactions Craft Kit in our next Amazon order. It allows you to build 10 amazing moving Lego machines. It will be coming soon so stay in touch!

KLUTZ

So you think you're good at Lego building?

WIN 2 TICKETS FOR STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

They Like Legos & Star Wars & sign up as a team

With the Dec 18, 2015 release of the 7th in a series of Star Wars movies, The Force Awakens, we barely have enough time to finish up a contest of putting together a 490 piece Lego puzzle of a Jedi Scout ship. Whoever does it fastest wins two tickets to the Star Wars Movie and $10 for concession stand treats. The question is, "Is Star Wars Science fiction or Fantasy?"

BAD DUDE TOWEL

CONTEST SCHEDULE

TUES, Dec 8, 2015    Apply for prequal rounds

TUES, Dec 15            Finalist Duel

FRI, Dec 18                Tickets awarded at lunch in the Media Center. When you hear the Star Wars trailer over our speakers and see it on our screens, time to assemble and find out who the winners are! The tickets should be able to used at any time; they will come in card form.

Science teacher Wentz's collection can be checked out by you

Download OverDrive, Win 2 Movie Tickets for Mockingjay 2 !

Mrs. Pollock, a reluctant photo model, shows where the tickets are

So you've read ALL the Hunger Games books and seen ALL the movies - - - ALMOST. If you would like 2 free movie tickets which you can use any time, with $10 worth of treat money for tempting tidbits from the concession stand, come to the Media Center 
and do this:

1. Download the Overdrive app through the app store 

2. Set up an account

3. Check out an ebook

5. Show Miss Mayne or Mrs. Pollock that you have a book checked out through Overdrive

6. They will give you a red ticket to  put in the drawings fishbowl, and a coupon to keep

7. Show up at the Media Center during lunch Nov 19th to see if you won the prize.

See--- bookmarks & tickets

See---Miss Mayne

We have handouts & bookmarks with instructions for those of you who think you can do this independently.

 Miss Mayne will be running tutorials after school, on demand, for students who like personal help. She will give you tickets to fill out to put in the fishbowl when you are finished.

Puzzles and Games

SPEED Up Your Learning Curve !

Come check these out  and use them in the conference room

 A famous statistician by the name of Nate Silver recently said "By playing games you can artificially speed up your learning curve to develop the right type of learning processes."

What's the "right type" is up to you and your teachers. "Make it fun and it will get done," is another great idea from Flylady.com to get you through onerous tasks, i.e. cleaning your room, doing your homework, getting that last lap in for the day. O-o-o-o, back to playing games. When was the last time you made something you dislike doing fun? That's creativity.
If life is a drag or boring, maybe you just need to unleash your brain.
Come to the Media Center and play games with your friends, maybe it will help you in Math!

We have 20 puzzles of all different sizes.

Puzzles can help your brain too. If you are one of those people who like to create order out of chaos, or better yet need to learn to create order out of chaos and see the patterns in things, then come try our puzzles. 

We buy new puzzles every year. If you see one you'd like to get your hands on, come tell Miss Mayne, and she will see what she can do for you.

GET'CHER GEEK ON!

Come sticky note which computer books you want to use first.

How many of you out there are closet technology geeks? Come to the library to see our latest purchases of how to better use your new iPhone, how to network and qualify for networking licensing to make yourself more employable, how to better use your existing versions of Windows products. Many of the books are easier to understand than the companies' HELP button, especially the books with "Teach Yourself Visually" in the title. Come on, don't be shy. You can actually use a computer to find out where our computer books are. You'll be right at home !

DON'T TAKE ANY WOODEN SKITTLES

A while back the esteemed members of the MacGyver Club read the book The Raft  by S.A. Bodeen together. During our discussion we went through every item the main character had in her raft. We debated if she used each item to its maximum usefulness. We wondered if she would have been any better off with an Altoids Survival kit, like the ones we've been making all year. 

One person said , "You know, she really should have saved the Skittles for fish bait, then she would have been able to bring in more food." Someone else said, "She would have been better off with Starbursts as bait, they would of lasted longer. Another debate ensued, so we set up an experiment after school that would answer some of the following MacGyver Think Outside the Box Questions.

1. How long would Skittles last in salt water as fish bait?
2. How long would Skittles last in fresh water?
3. Is there a difference between sea salt and iodized salt and their corrosive powers?
4. Is Skittles healthier as a survival food than Starbursts?




THE GRAND EXPERIMENT

Threading Bait

Adding Water

Grind sea salt & stir in water

Assemble bait, hooks, water, different types of salt, cups, pencils, duct tape, water, paper towels so Miss Mayne doesn't go all OCD on us. Thread the bait on the hook (we had to slightly squash the Skittles) ; put the water at the same level in the plain water cup, sea salt cup, and iodized salt cup. Dip two hooks in each water filled cup after you've taped it on a pencil to help them stay in place. Use your phones as timers to see which candy melts fastest in which type of water.
*  (TO BE CONTINUED) See Friday for test results :)

AND THE WINNERS ARE . . . !

Miss Mayne hands over free tickets to  team Eye of the Dragon

Those hands are blurred for a reason, 16 pieces a minute

Congratulations to Taylor and Scott (sorry can't use full names on our blog) who won the free tickets for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Competition was fierce and close, by seconds. Some team members have been building with Legos since they were five years old. Eye of the Dragon beat out 14 other teams putting together over 500 pieces in a total winning time of 30.42 minutes. They assembled approximately 16 pieces a minute.

This post is a lagger, Miss Mayne did give their tickets to them the last day of school just before Christmas Vacation, so they had a great reason to start Xmas in a movie complex. The next contest will be in March when the book to movie comes out for DIVERGENT, by Veronica Roth.

WATCH OUT FOR DOUBLE DATERS !

The following teams qualified to go on to the next rounds for the free tickets to The Hobbits: The Desolation of Smaug. Congratulations to all who participated. It was fun getting to know you and the varied talents you all have. Putting 104 Lego pieces together under 8 minutes is pretty awesome. !

In the next three phases you will need to come make an appointment and sign up as before so that Miss Mayne can get you set up with the phase you are to do next. If you want the tickets before Christmas Vacation, you need to show up by end of school Monday. That's today folks!

                                1.  7:08------------- Double Daters

                                2.  7:44-------------Cocaisn Invasion

                                3.  7:57------------- Eye of the Dragon

BIG guys, little Lego pieces

Legos appeal to girls too; they assembled 104 pieces

SMAUG LEGO CONTEST OFF TO A QUICK START!

THE FIRST TEAM TO COMPLETE PHASE 1

First Team Sets A High Standard

If you really want to make an adult feel inferior, challenge them to a timed Lego build contest. These two young men were the first, and so far the fastest, team to complete the first phase of the Smaug Lego build contest sponsored by LPHS's Media Center. The reward (besides humiliating adults) is two free tickets to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at a local theatre. Due to privacy laws we cannot list their names, but their team name is Cocaish Invation. (Their handwriting is not as good as their Lego skills.)

                        You Need To Sign Up Again!

Because there was such strong interest in this contest (14 TEAMS) we are doing qualifying rounds which should be done by the end of the week. We are trying to winnow it down to three teams, so that the next three phases can be accomplished before Christmas Break. Please come sign up for your timed qualifying round, even if you signed up on the original sheet. This is a different sign up. 

SO WHO IS SMAUG ?

Any of you who have read J.R. Tolkien's fantasy series knows who Smaug is - - - the biggest, meanest, darkest, most arrogant representation of evil, EVER! The next book of Tolkien that movie makers have deigned worthy of their millions has been entitled The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Wanna win some free tickets to this new movie, listen up ---

 A four phase set of Legos and the race to get them put together will be the drama unfolding in the LPHS Media Center. The contest rules are listed below. Enter with a friend or wanna be friend by the end of school, Friday December 6. The actual contest starts this Monday. By the time you finish putting together all phases of the Lake-town set, you'll either hate each other or want to go to the movie together. Did I mention, there are 470 pieces to debate over? They who win will get a gift card for two to go to the movie. Mixed gender teams are also encouraged, it will build/test your relationship. You can work on your phase before or after school, or during lunch.

Sign up with a friend by Friday, Dec 6 on this clipboard.

SMAUG LEGO ENTRY RULES

Objective: The first team to assemble all four phases in the least amount of time will win a 2 ticket gift card to the movie house of their choice

•  All four phases must be completed before Christmas Vacation 2013
•  Participants must work in teams of two at all times.
• Teams must sign up by Friday, Dec 6, 2013.
•  Competition begins Monday, Dec 9, 2013.
•   Library personnel will disassemble parts as soon as a phase is completed so as to prevent piece hogging.
•  Instruction books may be used for Hobbit Lego assembly.
•   Further rules may be added if something comes up that gives someone an unfair advantage.

You have to complete all four phases of the Hobbit Lego set

Happy Winner of Free Catching Fire Movie Tickets

Congrats to Alex B. who won two tickets for being the best
estimator in a tough contest !

Just when you think the day couldn't get any better, (Yay, for Thanksgiving Holidays), you become the lucky winner of a Cinemark gift card to go to a really hot movie!
By the looks of the Media Center Counting Board, most students grossly underestimated how many matches were really in the fish bowl. Our winner was within 271 matches of the total of 2650.

Come see how you did on the counting board,
right outside Miss Mayne's office.

Stay tuned for more movie ticket contests in the future; we like to promote reading by giving away tickets based on books.

MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR !

CATCHING FIRE: Win Tickets for Two!

THE WORD IS OUT, CATCHING FIRE IS HOT !

Wow! That's alot of matches, and some of them are in books.

I spoke with someone this morning who attended an early release of CATCHING FIRE, the movie, and she was very impressed with what she saw. Had she read the book, of course. Do we have the book in the Media Center, of course!

 Come to the Media Center and make your best guess about how many matches are in the fishbowl, sign up and put your guess in the Hunger Games bag, and you may be a winner!
You are allowed one guess.  (Scroll down, there's more).

Both guys and girls are very interested in this series, and though the main character is female, it is far from a chick flick. Oh, and did I say, these are IMAX tickets! The contest will be closed by the end of Monday 2:15 and the winner announced the next day at lunch. The tickets are in gift card form so you can go when you want; the time is not designated.

It's In the Bag

HUNGER GAMES, CATCHING FIRE TICKET CONTEST

ACTIVE NOW ! COME MAKE YOUR BEST GUESS NOW !

TICKETS FOR TWO, BE LUCKY,
 BE HAPPY !

MACGYVER MEETING #2: Paracord Fast Ropes

He learns paracord is tangle prone!

Was MacGyver OCD? Not hardly, but he did respect order. He always had duct tape and a Swiss Army Knife neatly tucked away to get out of any tricky situation. It would kind of ruin his flow and timing if he didn't know where everything was for immediate use. I'll bet he had that pin he used to stop a bomb detonator stuck in the tweezer hole of his Swiss Army Knife. He knew just where it was. He would have loved paracord ; ten bucks to the kid who finds a MacGyver episode or movie with proof he used paracord way back when.

Figure eights on your fingers make it happen

It's the Japanese Samurai who made an art of winding up and quickly whipping out a strong, thin cord as a means of prisoner restraint. They stored the cord up their sleeves as a bundled fast rope or around the sheaths of their Samuri swords.

As far as the MacGyver club members are concerned it is a great way to store paracord then deploy it without knots to work on projects. Other people like paracord for a number of reasons, but tangled paracord can be a bummer.

They most assuredly are magic, come see!

The anchor knot in the cord is the newest innovation in the fast rope. Pull the cord bundle by the knot as fast as you can and it's a done deal, you're ready to create!

MACGYVER CLUB MTG #1 DUCT TAPE SUPER SKILLS

MACGYVER CLUB MEETING A SUCCESS !

The world through the eye of a ductigamist. 

Hey everyone, there's more skill to ductigami than meets the eye! In our first meeting we learned how to make flat duct taped sheets that can be turned into 3D wallets. No one finished because they decided they already wanted to depart from the pattern provided by the book Ductigami: The Art of the Tape by Joe Wilson. Some members wanted secret chambers in their wallet, some coin holders, others side pockets.We also talked about the mission and goals of the club and what direction the members want to take it. More discussion on that later. (See MacGyver Club tab on this blog site.)

Not as easy as it looks; this stuff is sticky!

Club members decided it would better to meet after school on Thursdays at 2:30. The reason we meet after school is to have more time than a short lunch period to work on projects. There is no charge to join; it's never too late to catch up with projects. Our members are going to become expert at this skill and many others that will help us to think outside the box and problem solve all kinds of quirky issues in real life. We are also connecting these skills to books we are reading. Next: Paracording - - -  but that will be awhile yet. Contact Steve Song for further information.

A wallet waiting to be born :)

MACGYVER CLUB MEETS THIS MONDAY 1:30

When was the last time you looked at your wallet, backpack, or inside the skinny door of your locker and thought, "I've got to get organized, but this thing isn't built the way I want it to be." Come learn some basic duct taping skills to recreate your world and make your life and the life of others easier. 

Macgyver got around many difficult situations with duct tape and a Swiss Army knife. Come create what you need , become a MacGyver thinker who learns how to use your own ingenuity to fix or remedy a problem using only the tools (or skills) at hand. The next Macgyver skill that we'll learn is paracording.

 For more info on club philosopy and activities, go to the MacGyver Reading Club tab on the Media Center blog at lphsmedia.blogspot.com. Contact Miss Mayne or Steven Song for signup and meeting info! You must be signed up to start a project. There is no fee to join.

MIA: Where Have All the Chess Players Gone?

"I'm gonna kill you," One player says to another, and means it.

It all started about three years ago; a golden king chess piece came up missing on one of the expensive chess boards in the Media Center. Someone found it in the Baseball Armory and told Miss Mayne about it. He promised to bring it back but made the mistake of putting it on the metal ledge on the front window outside the Media Center after hours, where it was stolen a second time.

MIA King

The chess sets bought for the Media Center are hand-made, heavy, and highly decorative. It took years to buy them; they are pricey and difficult to replace. We had no choice, they have to be checked out now, and held in the Periodical Room when not being used. Miss Mayne loved the convenience of leaving them on the table and letting kids just "drop and play" whenever they wanted to. But alas, as is typical, one person ruined it for everyone else. Now, the chess players have disappeared too.

Should we put the sets out again, hoping nobody will lift pieces and take them for a permanent walk? They're here if you want to come play. (Look around, see if anyone has a golden king like the one in the photo sitting on their bookshelf at home. It could even be a person who has already graduated.)

YEARBOOKS AS OLD AS YOU ARE 

Homecoming means a lot of things to a lot of people, but until I pulled out all the yearbooks to give to Mrs. Bromley for a nostalgic faculty display, I honestly didn't realize how much time had gone by. I have been so focused on getting this library built up for student and teacher use, the time when by in a hurry. So to me, the student theme this year IT'S TIME really hit home. IT'S TIME, because that's all we've got that really matters, IT'S TIME because this particular point in time will never come by again (so ask the girl or guy out you want to be with on Homecoming night, don't stand on ceremony), IT'S TIME because noticing the people around you, not the things, is really what is important. "People first, then things," as Suzie Orman says, trying to get us to focus on the most important elements in this span of time. So be brave! Have courage! Even if the person you ask is stupid enough to say "No", you have tried and used your time well. No regrets. IT'S TIME!

That's 16 yearbooks, going on 17.
Miss Mayne and Mrs. Bromley are both amazed at how
many years are reflected by the yearbooks that LPHS has
been around .  You can find these yearbooks at the Media
Center in the Archive cupboard for viewing.

WHAT'S THAT---- Seeing Double?

What does Halloween and the Girl With the Pearl Earring have to do with the Media Center--- and what about that weird looking spider in his web, is he a jumper or not ? Where did Halloween come from and why do we celebrate it? What kind of scary books are out there for you to read to get you in the mood for that one last, dark night in October? Come to the Media Center to answer all of these questions in less than a minute.

THE KITES ARE DOWN &

 IT'S BACK TO BUSINESS AS USUAL!

Welcome back to LPHS Media Center and to all of the things we offer you! We're hoping to see much more reading this year since more English Teachers are becoming involved in the Thirty Book Challenge with their classes. Our current book count is over 16 thousand books---there ought to be 30 books of interest to you somewhere in here!